Using only superchargers

[hughgbyrne]

Hi, I'm new to this group and my question may already be dealt with somewhere, but I haven't found an answer. My Q is: are there any issues I need to be aware of in only using Superchargers for my Model 3 Long-range which I am getting delivered in the next 1-2 months? I live in a town-home community and don't have a garage. I'm happy to recharge my M3 in the way I have always done with filling up my ICE vehicles--every 3 weeks or so (I don't do a lot of driving; most will be longer trips where I can use superchargers. ) I'm wondering if there are any maintenance type issues--I know about the minor loss of charge over time when the car is left overnight etc. and isn't being recharged... Thanks for any guidance on this!

 

[LoudMusic]

It's reported that Supercharging causes the battery capacity to degrade more quickly.

It's also kind of a hassle to charge an EV this way for regular use. You're not going to get the same range per fill up from the Tesla that you've experienced in the past, and the recharge time is going to be massively longer for a full tank.

Charging at home overnight, or at work or wherever the car sits for long periods is a major selling point for EVs. I would work pretty hard to find a way to charge at the townhome, even if it's just from a standard wall outlet outside.

That said, there are plenty of people who do what you're suggesting. I just can't imagine spending all that time sitting at a Supercharger.

 

[thesmokingman]

It's reported that Supercharging causes the battery capacity to degrade more quickly.

It's also kind of a hassle to charge an EV this way for regular use. You're not going to get the same range per fill up from the Tesla that you've experienced in the past, and the recharge time is going to be massively longer for a full tank.

Charging at home overnight, or at work or wherever the car sits for long periods is a major selling point for EVs. I would work pretty hard to find a way to charge at the townhome, even if it's just from a standard wall outlet outside.

That said, there are plenty of people who do what you're suggesting. I just can't imagine spending all that time sitting at a Supercharger.

That's not true regarding superchargers causing more degradation. This misconception has been busted many times, even by Musk.


It's about one's charging practices. Keep your charging between 20% - 80%, try not run it down to 5% often nor charge to 100% often and you will be fine.

 

[LoudMusic]

That's not true regarding superchargers causing more degradation. This misconception has been busted many times, even by Musk.


It's about one's charging practices. Keep your charging between 20% - 80%, try not run it down to 5% often nor charge to 100% often and you will be fine.

I'm sorry if I don't believe what the car salesman has to say about his cars. Blame decades of dealing with car salesmen as the cause for this mistrust.

I also don't tend to believe the manufacturer of a product to provide real world statistics on their product. They are trying to sell it, so they make it look as good as possible. Ask someone who isn't making a profit from sales and you'll get a more honest answer.

Does Supercharging Reduce Tesla Battery Life? - Green Car Future

Tesla's supercharger network is amazing and really quick, but does it harm your Tesla's battery life if used too often? I find out.

www.greencarfuture.com

There's good information there. I found similar/same results elsewhere.

Regardless of the potential effects on the battery of using Supercharging, the human experience kinda sucks. Especially coming from a world where putting 300+ miles of range back in the vehicle only takes 10 minutes. I would go to great effort and cost to provide myself a way to charge at home before I would rely on Supercharging as my primary source.

 

[jjrandorin]

I'm happy to recharge my M3 in the way I have always done with filling up my ICE vehicles--every 3 weeks or so (I don't do a lot of driving;

You wont be "filling up like I did my ICE vehicles, every 3 weeks or so". This is one of the biggest assumption mistakes that people thinking about buying these cars make.

I have explained why this is not the case in several threads, so will copy paste one of my responses from one of those threads as to why, but you will likely be going to a supercharger every 5-6 days at BEST. If your expectation Is "I dont have home charging but its fine because I can charge every 3 weeks or so, thats not bad", you likely should at a minimum revise those expecations, or if thats a "I need" thing, cancel the order.

===========================================

(Copied from another thread, where the person said "I only drive 15 miles a day so should be able to go 2-3 weeks")

15 miles of actual mileage used daily, which is mostly short trips (most likely) will be between 20 and 25 miles of actual range used. The car may have a EPA estimate range of "358 miles" but:

1. You dont charge to 100% all the time (at least not on long range vehicles currently). You will charge to at a max daily of 90%. 90% of 358 is 322.
2. You dont run down to Zero (no one is doing that on an EV). Generally, people would be looking to "fill up" when they hit 20% (approx 71 miles)

322 - 71 = 251 miles. This is the number that someone will be using (90% to 20%).

15 miles driven, given weather and short trips etc will be 20-25 miles used from the cars "range meter". This does not account for sentry mode ( approximately 1 mile an hour of usage) or climate control. People without home charging like to use sentry mode because the car is generally parked outside, but in this specific OPs case its not apparent whether this will be desired, so lets discount Sentry mode usage.

Call the "15 miles driven" 22 miles used, and tack on an additional 6-7 miles for climate use etc and call it total of 27 miles used. That gives 9 days to go between 90% and 20%, not counting on the fact that winter usage is less efficient (about 30%). In actual usage, this OP will be going from 90% to 20% in somewhere between 7-9 days, certainly not 2 weeks, and no where near 3 weeks.

They will also be spending a fair amount of time at a supercharger to charge back up to 90%, due to how the charging speed tapers while supercharging once the battery passes about 60% or so.

This is all when brand new, not counting at all the average 5-7% battery degradation that occurs the first year or so, before it appears to settle down.

I am certainly not down on teslas or model 3s, but really try hard to educate people who dont have (or think they need) home charging because they are going to "fill up every couple weeks" that it wont work like that, so they either need to be prepared for what it ACTUALLY will be, or not get the car.

 

[hughgbyrne]

You wont be "filling up like I did my ICE vehicles, every 3 weeks or so". This is one of the biggest assumption mistakes that people thinking about buying these cars make.

I have explained why this is not the case in several threads, so will copy paste one of my responses from one of those threads as to why, but you will likely be going to a supercharger every 5-6 days at BEST. If your expectation Is "I dont have home charging but its fine because I can charge every 3 weeks or so, thats not bad", you likely should at a minimum revise those expecations, or if thats a "I need" thing, cancel the order.

===========================================

(Copied from another thread, where the person said "I only drive 15 miles a day so should be able to go 2-3 weeks")

Thanks for the info on my likely frequency of recharging the vehicle. I appreciate that reality check. It's doesn't affect my decision to purchase the M3 (which I know wasn't your intention), as I'm a bit of an outlier. I do all my work from home--or wherever I can safely plug in my laptop. My local driving is very limited--two or three miles for food, coffee, takeout meals. I live in DC metro area with fairly easy access to public charging. Most of my miles will come from monthly trips to visit family--DC>NY>DC. And I'm planning to raise Q of providing charging for EVs to our homeowners association--though this will not likely be a quick process.

And most of all, things are--and will be--changing fairly rapidly here and worldwide with the transition from internal combustion engines to EVs--and I'm willing to put up with some 'inconvenience' as part of the price I'm happy to pay to be part of solution to turning climate change around... And I don't have a problem sitting down with a book or work while waiting 20-30 minutes or even an hour to recharge... I'm happy to hear any other reality checks of things I might not be taking into account in buying the new vehicle...

 

[jjrandorin]

Thanks for the info on my likely frequency of recharging the vehicle. I appreciate that reality check. It's doesn't affect my decision to purchase the M3 (which I know wasn't your intention), as I'm a bit of an outlier. I do all my work from home--or wherever I can safely plug in my laptop. My local driving is very limited--two or three miles for food, coffee, takeout meals. I live in DC metro area with fairly easy access to public charging. Most of my miles will come from monthly trips to visit family--DC>NY>DC. And I'm planning to raise Q of providing charging for EVs to our homeowners association--though this will not likely be a quick process.

And most of all, things are--and will be--changing fairly rapidly here and worldwide with the transition from internal combustion engines to EVs--and I'm willing to put up with some 'inconvenience' as part of the price I'm happy to pay to be part of solution to turning climate change around... And I don't have a problem sitting down with a book or work while waiting 20-30 minutes or even an hour to recharge... I'm happy to hear any other reality checks of things I might not be taking into account in buying the new vehicle...

As long as you are aware that if you drive at all, you will be charging every few days, not every few weeks, thats great. The other reality check would be, if you use sentry mode on the car it will use about 20 ish "miles" of range every day (a 24 hour period).

Most people who dont have home charging are also the same people who expect to use sentry mode (no home charging, no garage, car has a feature to record everything so why not use it?) If you use sentry mode, and park on a monday, and dont use the car for 3-4 days with sentry mode on that entire time, 60-80 "miles" will be gone from the car (thus needing more trips to go charge it).

Those are the two big things for people who dont have home (or work) charging.

 

[Ciaopec]

It's reported that Supercharging causes the battery capacity to degrade more quickly.

It's also kind of a hassle to charge an EV this way for regular use. You're not going to get the same range per fill up from the Tesla that you've experienced in the past, and the recharge time is going to be massively longer for a full tank.

Charging at home overnight, or at work or wherever the car sits for long periods is a major selling point for EVs. I would work pretty hard to find a way to charge at the townhome, even if it's just from a standard wall outlet outside.

That said, there are plenty of people who do what you're suggesting. I just can't imagine spending all that time sitting at a Supercharger.

I have a 2016 Model S with nearly 150,000 on it. Most (75-80%) of the charging has been on superchargers through travel. I have about 7% battery degradation. Some cooling issues may have contributed to that. I charged to 100% on few necessary occasions and drove immediately ; the battery has never been below 5%.

While I don't know your driving habits it's difficult to say whether to sit there and charge to 90% once-in-a-while or just charge between 10%-50% more frequently. On an individual basis that would be quicker but on an additive basis who knows. You could also check Plug Share and see if there is somewhere nearby to charge on a Lvl 2 charger while making shopping runs, dinner, etc.

 

[hughgbyrne]

I have a 2016 Model S with nearly 150,000 on it. Most (75-80%) of the charging has been on superchargers through travel. I have about 7% battery degradation. Some cooling issues may have contributed to that. I charged to 100% on few necessary occasions and drove immediately ; the battery has never been below 5%.

While I don't know your driving habits it's difficult to say whether to sit there and charge to 90% once-in-a-while or just charge between 10%-50% more frequently. On an individual basis that would be quicker but on an additive basis who knows. You could also check Plug Share and see if there is somewhere nearby to charge on a Lvl 2 charger while making shopping runs, dinner, etc.

Thanks for the advice. Appreciate it.

 

[LoudMusic]

I have a 2016 Model S with nearly 150,000 on it. Most (75-80%) of the charging has been on superchargers through travel. I have about 7% battery degradation. Some cooling issues may have contributed to that. I charged to 100% on few necessary occasions and drove immediately ; the battery has never been below 5%.

While I don't know your driving habits it's difficult to say whether to sit there and charge to 90% once-in-a-while or just charge between 10%-50% more frequently. On an individual basis that would be quicker but on an additive basis who knows. You could also check Plug Share and see if there is somewhere nearby to charge on a Lvl 2 charger while making shopping runs, dinner, etc.

1kw for 10 hours at home is more convenient than 8kw for 1 hour at the grocery store.

I wouldn't bother looking for alternatives until I had exhausted all options at home.

 

[Ciaopec]

1kw for 10 hours at home is more convenient than 8kw for 1 hour at the grocery store.

I wouldn't bother looking for alternatives until I had exhausted all options at home.

They don't have home charging if I read his post correctly. I was merely stating there are other places to charge while doing other things.

 

[ZenRockGarden]

My (limited) experience is I can go about a week on my MYLR around town errands, and then need to make one lunch-duration visit to the supercharger station that's happily located near a half dozen restaurants. I regard this as pretty darn easy.

 

[hughgbyrne]

My (limited) experience is I can go about a week on my MYLR around town errands, and then need to make one lunch-duration visit to the supercharger station that's happily located near a half dozen restaurants. I regard this as pretty darn easy.

Thanks, ZenRockGarden, that sounds about my speed! And should be possible living in Washington DC metro area--and once a week with lunch or a book sounds more like fun than a chore...

 

[hughgbyrne]

They don't have home charging if I read his post correctly. I was merely stating there are other places to charge while doing other things.

Correct, I don't have easy prospect of at-home charging--town-home community, our house separated by a good distance from our parking spaces and would need to run wiring over public pavement, which the HOA would undoubtedly nix for liability reasons... And I was quoted $5-6K for the stand alone charger to put in our dedicated parking space--but that's far more than I want to pay and would still need permission for that from HOA... Thanks for your help!

 

[noline]

Personally I like the supercharger, we have one behind a WholeFoods, during a 20 minute trip thru the store once a week I can get around a 50% powerup. Considering I'm getting something else done at the same time it's a no brainer.

 

[LoudMusic]

Personally I like the supercharger, we have one behind a WholeFoods, during a 20 minute trip thru the store once a week I can get around a 50% powerup. Considering I'm getting something else done at the same time it's a no brainer.

That's a good situation if home charging isn't an option. It will become even better for Tesla owners when the CCS adapter is available in North America because there are a lot of Electrify America stations at places like Walmart.

Even still, I personally would not own an EV if I was unable to charge at home overnight.

 

[webwarmiller]

Correct, I don't have easy prospect of at-home charging--town-home community, our house separated by a good distance from our parking spaces and would need to run wiring over public pavement, which the HOA would undoubtedly nix for liability reasons... And I was quoted $5-6K for the stand alone charger to put in our dedicated parking space--but that's far more than I want to pay and would still need permission for that from HOA... Thanks for your help!

Is there really no place at your TH community where you could park next to a basic 110v/15amp outlet? Even at just a 3-4 miles/hr charge rate, that would probably be enough for you based on your stated use and living/work situation.

When we travel to the in-laws I charge over a 110v at their house when there for a couple of days. In a given 24 hr period it's probably on the charger for over 20 hrs each day which more than covers each day's use.

 

[thesmokingman]

Is there really no place at your TH community where you could park next to a basic 110v/15amp outlet? Even at just a 3-4 miles/hr charge rate, that would probably be enough for you based on your stated use and living/work situation.

When we travel to the in-laws I charge over a 110v at their house when there for a couple of days. In a given 24 hr period it's probably on the charger for over 20 hrs each day which more than covers each day's use.

Ha, that reminds me of a cousin whose owned an X for years and has been using 110v the whole time. I was flabbergasted when he told me like WTF? I can't comprehend the time wasted. They litterally plan their errands and trips around the charging.

 

[webwarmiller]

Ha, that reminds me of a cousin whose owned an X for years and has been using 110v the whole time. I was flabbergasted when he told me like WTF? I can't comprehend the time wasted. They litterally plan their errands and trips around the charging.

We charge over a nema-14-50 each night but we could easily get by 99% of the time over just 110/15. It's the wife's/family car and it is generally in our garage from 9pm until 11am or so most days (wife doesn't work and empty nesters). That's 14 hours where it would sip 45-60 miles of range which is enough for typical daily use. Plus there's always times during the day when the wife isn't running around town when it could be plugged in as well.

 

[thesmokingman]

We charge over a nema-14-50 each night but we could easily get by 99% of the time over just 110/15. It's the wife's/family car and it is generally in our garage from 9pm until 11am or so most days (wife doesn't work and empty nesters). That's 14 hours where it would sip 45-60 miles of range which is enough for typical daily use. Plus there's always times during the day when the wife isn't running around town when it could be plugged in as well.

You're missing the point. Yea you could live off a 110v, as my cousin has. But would you...? Charging at a silly slow speed literally makes live around the lengthy charge sessions.